Do not disturb:
A look at hotel safety and security in the post-9/11 world

Anyone who has ever set foot on a commercial airplane or left Canada by other means since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States three years ago is quite familiar with how security has become entrenched in business and leisure travel. However, less attention has been paid to the safety of travellers once they arrive at their destinations, as Ottawa-based journalist Christopher Guly discovered in the feature story, “Do not disturb,” which appears in the Fall 2004 edition of the Canada Safety Council’s Living Safety magazine.

In the United States, most hotels made no changes to safety and security staffing or procedures following 9/11, according to an analysis by the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR) at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.

In one CHR survey, luxury and upscale hotels recorded the highest scores for safety and security, as did those that are newer (where electronic locks, sprinklers and interior corridors are less common in older hotels built 30 years ago or more) and those that are near airports. By comparison, resorts were one of the lowest-scoring sectors, mainly because so many of them lack sprinklers and electronic door locks, reports the CHR.

Though a similar study has not been done in Canada, the Hotel Association of Canada says the country’s accommodation industry views safety and security as its “major responsibility.” Association president Tony Pollard says that in addition to such measures as replacing numbered room keys with coded insert cards, Canadian hotel security has been bolstered by technology. Most hotel employees are now “wired” with many using cell phones with headsets to stay in constant contact with management whenever the need arises.

However, Pollard adds that part of the responsibility for hotel safety and security lies with guests themselves. “When you travel, pack your common sense,” he says. “As an industry, we can’t guard everybody all the time.” Guly’s piece provides a checklist travellers should follow when choosing hotels.

For instance, some travel tips recommend selecting rooms on the upper floors of a hotel to avoid the possibility of someone climbing in through a window and then escaping the same way. Others suggest choosing rooms on the lower levels with closer access to the front desk.

But with top-to-bottom security measures in place at Canadian hotels, considerations like room location are decisions left to guests themselves and require a balance between precaution and convenience, says Pollard.

“Many people who attend hotel conventions or meetings want rooms that are either close to ground level or near elevators so they don’t have to waste time waiting in line for an elevator or getting stuck in a crowded one that stops at every floor. But a lot of people don’t want to be above the 10th floor because that’s the highest level fire trucks can reach – [though] all hotels have pressurized and ventilated stairways that allow guests to safely vacate if they are above the 10th floor.”

The Canada Safety Council publishes Living Safety on a quarterly basis.

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